Bias Charged in Denial of Aid to History Course

Washington--An official in the Education Department's research
branch has manipulated established review processes to block funds to
disseminate a curriculum on the Holocaust that offends her conservative
beliefs, according to an advocacy group and department employees.

Shirley Curry, director of the recognition division in the office of
educational research and improvement, has "abused her discretion in
service to her rigid ideology," charged Max McConkey, head of the
National Dissemination Study Group, an organization representing
members of the National Diffusion Network.

Mr. McConkey and others familiar with the program concede, however,
that Ms. Curry broke no laws by denying funds for the curriculum. Ms.
Curry, whose office oversees the ndn program, did not return telephone
calls last week.

The ndn makes exemplary instructional programs on a variety of
subjects available to school districts. The project in question is
"Facing History and Ourselves," a curriculum dealing with the
persecution of Jews during World War II that has been included in the
network for many years.

A storm of controversy erupted last year when "Facing History" was
first denied dissemination funding, which is granted to a relatively
small number of projects selected for ndn recognition. (See Education
Week, Aug. 4, 1987.)

It had been given low marks by review panelists, who Mr. McConkey
and others charged were selected by conservatives in the department to
reflect their political biases.

Comments by one reviewer that the program failed to present the
views of the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan received national media
attention, and some department officials later admitted that "Facing
History" had not received a fair review.

Because of the controversy, the department was forced to abandon a
"program significance panel" it had planned to add to the ndn review
process to screen programs for "appropriateness." Critics alleged that
the second review panel was intended to censor programs for political
reasons. (See Education Week, May 11, 1988.)

The developers of the "Facing History" curriculum reapplied for ndn
funding this year and received high marks from reviewers, according to
oeri sources.

However, Mr. McConkey and oeri employees familiar with the ndn who
requested anonymity said Ms. Curry was determined to prevent the
program from receiving federal funding.

O.eri sources said Ms. Curry had told employees that she would
ensure the program would not be funded because the conservative
activist Phyllis Schlafly dislikes it. Ms. Curry is said to have strong
ties to Mrs. Schlafly and her organization, the Eagle Forum.

Although ndn dissemination awards have not yet been announced, oeri
sources confirmed that "Facing History" will be bypassed for funding in
favor of programs that had received lower review scores. They also said
that ndn staff members had strongly recommended that the program be
funded.

The sources said Ms. Curry decided to fund no projects in
the8"History, Geography, and Civics" category in which the disputed
project had applied solely to deny it a grant.

The oeri employees also agreed with Mr. McConkey's assertion that a
decision to deny funding to several other entire categories was
designed to mask Ms. Curry's decision regarding "Facing History."

In addition, the sources said, Ms. Curry's decision not to provide
awards in the "Schoolwide and Districtwide Improvement" category was
intended to block funding for "Project climb," whose director, Barbara
Brenner, was active in opposing the program-significance panel.

Mr. McConkey contended that Ms. Curry asked William Kristol,
then-staff director to Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, to
intervene on her behalf when two of her superiors--Milton Goldberg,
director of the programs for improvement of practice, and Assistant
Secretary Chester E. Finn--told her they could not, or would not,
prevent "Facing History" from being funded.

Both Mr. Finn and Mr. Goldberg declined to comment.

Another superior, Ronald P. Preston, who resigned this summer as
oeri's deputy assistant secretary for policy and planning, confirmed
that he had not been consulted, and said Mr. Goldberg had not been
consulted either.

"I can tell you this much: it was handled ultimately by Dr. Finn,
who signed the papers," Mr. Preston said.

Mr. Kristol, who left the department this summer to manage a
friend's campaign for the Senate, said he knew of Ms. Curry's decision
and may have discussed it with her, but "didn't do anything in the
sense of calling people or getting strings pulled."

He said Ms. Curry decided not to fund programs in the history
category because there were only two applicants. He also said the
category is "intrinsically controversial," and that "other areas were
more unambiguously deserving of our support."

O.eri employees said Ms. Curry's actions are legal, because the
announcements inviting awards carry a disclaimer noting that the
department may not fund all the projects it has money for and may not
fund projects in all categories.

"Everything they did was legal," said Mr. Preston, who said he was
asked to resign, but not over the ndn controversies. "I would have
walked out for different reasons if that were not the case."

However, the oeri sources said, the department's flexibility in
awarding ndn grants was intended to ensure that all awards do not go to
a few categories that have many high-scoring entries, and that
low-quality projects are not funded in a year when applications are
substandard.

Entire categories are typically denied funding only when no
applicant is rated highly enough, the sources said.

"Even if projects get high scores, you don't necessarily have to
fund them, but it seems that authority is being used improperly," one
source said. "I'm torn, because this is a discretionary program and not
an entitlement. But in this case, what's being done is not fair and
it's not right."

Congressional aides who are concerned about the ndn program agreed
with Mr. McConkey and the oeri sources that Ms. Curry's decision would
be difficult to reverse, because she has broken no law.

"Shirley's not stupid," an oeri employee said. "That's why nobody
has been able to stop her."

Several oeri sources also said Ms. Curry is trying to leave a more
permanent imprint on the ndn by replacing its head, Lee Wickline, a
veteran civil servant, with someone who supports her views. Mr.
Wickline could not be reached for comment.

Web Only

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.